Search engines (e.g. internet search engines) allow a user to identify relevant documents, in response to a query comprising e.g. one or more search terms. Search engines typically make use of significant computing resources (with regards to processing power and with regards to memory), in order to provide the user with a reliable list of potentially relevant documents.
Handheld electronic devices (e.g. smartphones, tablet computers, notebook computers, etc.) allow a user to carry around a large database of text documents (such as electronic books, emails, sms, calendar database entries, address book entries, downloaded webpages, and others). The user should be enabled to reliably and efficiently determine relevant text documents from the database of text documents, in response to a query. However, handheld electronic devices typically have very limited computing resources (with respect to memory and processing power). It is therefore desirable to provide a method and a system for determining a list of (relevant) candidate documents, in response to a query comprising one or more search terms, in a resource efficient manner. The query comprising one or more search terms may be derived from (e.g. may correspond to) a document (referred to e.g. as a search document).